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As of January 2018

This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

Of course its probable for road trips! When you go in a car a nearly perfect facsimile of the words is projected onto the "windows" and the vehicle is bounced around and pushed and pulled to simulate movement and stopping. Meanwhile when you are "driving" the crew changes the set to look like your destination. C'mon man, get your head out of the "clouds."

Freaked the fuck out of me considering I have the same name and I was 10 when I first saw it. My sister will still just stare off into space and start advertising something to someone who isn't there just to fuck with me.

The last episode never made it past the voice-over stage. The whole episode was supposed to be a big "fuck you". The network of course hated it among other things because they were not only breaking the 4th wall but pointing out that nickelodeon cancels shows and airs reruns for years like nothing has happened.

However, as far as I know there exists a storyboard locked away in a nickelodeon vault somewhere.

nickelodeon cancels shows and airs reruns for years like nothing has happened

This. I remember them doing this for Jimmy Neutron and I was so pissed, as that was actually an enjoyable cartoon. The only animated shows I can remember them giving a satisfactory ending to were Avatar and Danny Phantom, but these were shows that needed an ending. Nickelodeon could've at least given the courtesy of bringing most (I say most because there have been misfires over the years, a la catscratch) of their shows to a close just so they'd please the committed fans.

Nickelodeon had an in-house policy of killing things after 3-5 years, to keep everything fresh, but made exceptions for things like Rugrats and Spongebob. I don't know if they still keep this policy but I'd imagine not.

It's kind of a common policy with Cartoons, and it does make sense, but it can be frustrating. I've heard that companies don't really want to give cartoons proper endings, because it would give the viewer closure on the show, which might keep them from watching reruns. For shows like Samurai Jack, these two policies suck, because we'll most likely never seen an ending for Jack's story.

I've found Spongebob to be getting better as it ages. The writers are getting more coarse and tongue-in-cheek and it's pretty hilarious. Maybe it's just because I only watch it when I'm drunk at this point.

It was getting a little old before the change to "All Grown Up". Cartoons have to go out inside of 5 years or they get stale. It's better to go out on top than to be going through the pile of ideas that were scrapped before. Once they start to reconsider discarded ideas for shows it's been running too long. It's the same with sitcoms too. The kill date is a good rule and I wish all media corps. subscribed to it. Once they've released lousy shows it brings down the quality of the series as a whole.

I re-watch everything with my grand kids. I think it's far better than Barney. Though I can fall asleep in moments when Thomas the train engine is on. My youngest grand kid is going to see his first episode of Angry Beavers today. He's 3 so his attention isn't there yet but I think the action will hold him. I've just got to wait until grandma goes out. I don't want her opinion on this.

Like Cartoon Network, the executives figured out that it would be cheaper to make live action shows rather than cartoons. Unlike Cartoon Network, they didn't have the word "cartoon" in the name of their network, so they got away with it. Also The N is pretty much dead and is now "teen nick" and everything bad that implies. Nick's main target demographic is now tweens rather than kids under 10.

EDIT: What's funny is that Cartoon Network and Nick are rushing to be like The Disney Channel a decade ago, while Disney is trying to be Nick in the 90s.

Cartoon Network has some good shows on it now. Gumball, Regular Show, Adventure Time are all absolutely amazing, witty, and wicked funny. And they aren't stupid teen shows; I think they are a lot like 90s cartoons.

I know for a fact they keep the same xmas specials replayed every year.

Example: Fairly OddParents xmas special that came on in 2001 was recently played last Xmas for an entire week straight multiple times a day. Which they have been doing every Xmas-week for 10 goddamn years.

Whenever I used to flip through (we got rid of cable about 2 months ago now) it was mostly shit like iCarly and Spongebob. Occasionally I'd catch Fairly Odd Parents, but that got old after a while too.

Problem is that they never declare a episode a series finale, because if they did they would lose viewers and actually be forced to create a new cartoon to replace it.

It's a lot more profitable for rerun a series again and again and not create a proper series finale. Nick did it, Cartoon Network did it, and Disney Channel when it started devolving to a teen-focused market did it.

Here's a fan's version of those lines, It's pretty good. Nowhere did I find (I didn't search all that much) "It wasn't animated" just the last 4 episodes weren't released in the US is all I can come up with. Though I do expect that it was never animated. Now i need to look for the 3 other episodes that were made but not released in the US.

It sounds like Richard Horvits (Dagget / Zim) is laughing and commenting over parts of this. Like when Norb says "richie-baby" you can hear Rich laugh in the background. makes me wonder when and how this recording was released.

I kind of thought this was just a table-read, early in development of the episode (before Nickelodeon caught on). That would explain why the audio sounds a little lower quality and why people (the actors themselves, director, writer maybe) are laughing in the background.

When, my guess, some years after the show ended. How, again my guess, some sneaky Nickelodeon audio vault keeper found it collecting dust and uploaded it to the internet for the good of all manbeaverkind.

"Arlene Klasky was responsible for shutting down The Angry Beavers to promote her show Rugrats. Heres the story:
Over at Nickelodeon, Arlene Klasky (rugrats) and Mitch Schauler (angry beavers) were huge rivals, similar to Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett. In my opinion, Arlene was Chuck and Mitch was Bob. In 1997 when TAB debuted on Nick it became popular because the rating for what audience was expanded. Instead of being "just for kids", TAB was more derived for teens and adults. Arlene apparently got jealous of Mitch because the Rugrats were soon about to be called "yesterday's diapers'' (no pun intended). Arlene didn't want her show to be thrown off the shelf, she wanted to be the most popular of the Nick- staffers. In 1998 Arlene DEMAND Herb Scannell to do a Rugrats movie, but she never told Herb WHY she wanted a movie. Mitch was unawear of the movie, and so were TAB / Rugrats fans. If you guys noticed the Rugrats movie was released unexpected, which Arlene inteded it on. Rugrats returned to their peak, but TAB was still the second most popular. This is where the rivalry of TAB and Rugrats began. Arlene wanted to make sure TAB wouldn't win ground. On Interviews Arlene threw out derision at TAB and even made an insult to MITCH! And this interview was even broadcasted NATIONWIDE!!! TAB fans finding out that TAB was a "stupid, over-bearing" show and found out the "truth" about TAB, stopped watching the serise and started focusing on Rugrats. TAB websites shut down and Rugrats websites started popping up. Arlene obviously not satisfied, looked over some TAB episodes and complained to Herb that some scenes were deemed to "violent" for kids AND teens. TV Executives edited several scenes (sloppily if you ask me), and banned a couple of episodes. To make double-sure Rugrats would stay @ their peak, Arlene did a second Rugrats movie, and added a Japanese character (who if you ask me looks stereotypical). Also, on some of the other Klasky shows, references to TAB and Mitch were kinda cruel. On Rocket Power Otto Rocket is making a list of gay-ish people. The TAB voices Nick Bakay and Rich Horvitz were on the list and so was Mitch!
(this is the short storie, right?)
Mitch, who had no clue what was going on, wanted to make a TAB movie. But stupid him, went to Arlene for guidelines. Arlene told him there wasn't enough money for a TAB movie. Yet, this didn't stop the 2nd Rugrats movie to getting released. And, it's rumored Arlene is working on another Rugrats movie, and the TAB studio collapsed. So, you see. This is why TAB fans like to poke fun @ the rugrats and insult Arlene Klasky, who by the TAB fans is considered, "The biggest S.O.B. on the face of the earth.""

I had read this before, This is what Urban Dictionary has to say about Arlene Klasky. I will see if I can find a more reputable source.

Interest isn't exactly the most important factor here. Animating even 10 minutes of footage is a serious time investment. If no one's paying for it, that's quite a lot of free time that has to be thrown at this. The only realistic way to do this for free would be to get a seriously hefty animation team. Even then, the project has to be coordinated very carefully if everyone is working from home.

If this gets done for free, I see it being a collage of various 30 second-ish clips. Which means we'd need to find 20 animators to volunteer for this (and that's a conservative estimate). If that happens, I'd gladly volunteer to be among that number (not a professional animator, just an enthusiast).

can you point us to one that required only a basic level of knowledge, is good, and was done in a short period of time?

Regarding south park, please just check the wiki page:

It includes such tidbits as: "Now, with a staff of about 70 people, episodes are typically completed in one week ... with some in as little as three to four days." and "... from there the entire team of animators, editors, technicians, and sound engineers will each typically work 100–120 hours in the ensuing week"

So in a way, you're right. And in another, more accurate, way, Hydro0o0 is right.

Reminds me of the last Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode - some characters try to get the show cancelled, batman fights against them, people get tricked into breaking character, Ted McGinley is brought on (cause every series he's on "Jumps the Shark") etc. etc.

In season two, Norb said the line "shut up, dag". Apparently parents called to complain and the words were bleeped out after the premere. They then went back and changed it to "shush up, stupid" for all following airings.
In the last minute of bye bye beavers, dag says "I've got one thing I've always I wanted to say, Shut up!", clearly a reference to the controversy.

If you're into this type of thing, I'd also recommend checking out Grant Morrison's run on the comibook series Animal Man, which eventually becomes about Animal Man's gradual discovery that he is a fictional character in a comicbook. It gets pretty trippy.

At the end of the episode, Dag and Norbert both scream "APRIL FOOLS" and begin laughing. This has started a rumor that the series was never meant to end here, and it was simply an April Fools day special, but because they mocked Nickelodeon in this episode, the series was ended here.

It kind of reminds me of why Adult Swim cancelled Moral Orel. The two part Nature episode at the end of season two was far and away the darkest, and most popular episodes the show had. As a result, Adult Swim told the team to make the darkest episode they could.

The result was "Alone", an episode focusing on three of the female townspeople who had each been sexually abused extensively. One had been repeatedly molested in the past, one had allowed herself to be raped in order to have sex, and then gave herself a coat hanger abortion when she became pregnant, and the third had had her ovaries removed as a child.

The episode was SO dark that when the network saw it, they immediately cut season three in half and cancelled the show.

The whole episode was about how the show wasn't as dark and mysterious as it should be, so a 5th dimensional character was doing his best to sabotage the show. He gave Batman a gun, changed the setting to LA i think, put bad merchandise that they sell at walmart into the show. They even changed Aquaman's voice actor to make the show worse. Its audience began to stop watching and the show was going to get cancelled. At the end, Batman invites everyone, heroes and villains and just has a going away party.

I recall watching an episode of this show as a child, and at one point the beavers were fighting and Dag said to Norbert "-bleep- you."

I spent months convinced that the Angry Beavers had said something awful on the air. My parents never believed me. Saw a rerun of the episode, and waited on the edge of my seat to hear the same bleep... Dag says "spoot you!" Don't know why Nick decided to bleep it, but I can only imagine what goes on in standards and practices.